Comments on: Biking with your Pooch – Part 1: The K9 Bike Jogger

By: Whitney

Whitney — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:25:35 +0000

Phil – I’m sorry to hear about your experience with the K9 Bike Jogger. I hope that you contacted the company!!

But I’m glad that you found a replacement that you’re happy with so that you and your pooch can continue to enjoy bike riding! I’ve never tried the Springer before… it looked kind of complicated to me so that scared me off. Perhaps you’d be willing to write up a review of it? We love guest bloggers! Send me an email if you’re interested and we’ll look into getting you all set up!

whitney [at] webstrategies [dot] com

By: Phil

Phil — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:08:55 +0000

I bought a K9 bike jogger in April ‘09 ans used it a few times a week to present (Nov ‘09). Last week the clamp that holds the jogger to the seatpost cracked in half. The dog is 50 pounds, and was pulling, but there was no crash, impact or anything like that. I was simply riding along, the dog gave a pull, and it cracked. The metal is very cheap.

I bought a Springer to replace it. It is a far more solid device, and I think I may just stick with it.

By: Whitney

Whitney — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:20:43 +0000

As far as I can tell the K9 Bike Jogger and the WalkyDog units do have interchangeable hardware. I have one of each and there appears to be no difference between the bike attachment hardware. My husband and I swap them off regularly when we’re taking our pooch for a bike ride.

By: Madeleine StMichael

Madeleine StMichael — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 20:07:39 +0000

My dog loves running with the WalkyDog. She is only 20 pounds but very fast and strong. I put her in both a walking vest and a harness over it to more evenly distribute the pressure on her chest and fasten the WalkyDog to both at her center back. She is only 15″ tall. She pulls me along if we go at a moderate rate. Pedaling as fast as I can downhill I can match her top speed. She loves running all out. When we reach the top of the run and I start to turn for home, she sits down, digs in and insists on another dash downhill! I have to be careful to check her pads, and not run her on hot days. Bonus, she uses her nails for extra traction, so regular use eliminates the need to get them trimmed.
I will post a video here soon: http://www.dogster.com/dogs/675666
She wore out the original leash. It got frayed and seemed ready to give out. I found some extra-strength cord and reconstructed the unit. The new leash has lasted much longer than the original. I also replaced the leash clip about a week after getting the WalkyDog. It was poorly made and difficult to use. I also wanted something stronger since she puts so much pressure on it.
The guys who have the website seemed to be the exclusive US distributers for WalkyDog, which was made in Europe. (I seem to remember the original packaging saying something about Milan, Italy, but it was over a year ago.) When I was planning to purchase I discovered they had a reputation for poor customer service. I was promised the product by a certain date and it was at least a week late, even though I paid extra for quicker shipping. I spoke to one of the owners and I was not impressed with his attitude. Perhaps they have improved.
In this global economy, many people who distribute a product decide to take the design and get it produced elsewhere and then cut out the original designer and manufacturer. Small companies find it difficult to enforce patents internationally. This happened to the product my husband sells. I do not know if this is the case with the WalkyDog and the K9 Bike Jogger, but I would not be surprised.
I wonder if I bought a K9 attachment to put on another bike whether it would work with the WalkyDog unit.

By: Whitney

Whitney — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:06:52 +0000

Apparently, the WalkyDog came first, and then K9 Bike Jogger came second. I honestly can’t comment on which product I think is better, as they are so very similar. Scott had commented previously, and as I said before, the instrument that you see in the video here is actually the WalkyDog. I purchased it some number of years ago before the K9 Bike Jogger came out. When I did this blog post, I searched google for the WalkyDog but found no results except the page that I had ordered from originally, which is now selling the K9 Bike Jogger.

I honestly think that it’s just personal preference. The two products are very similar.

By: Laura

Laura — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:26:17 +0000

i was just about to order a walkydog from ebay but i saw it’s now K9 jogger. Anyone know if there is any difference or should I just proceed with the Walkydog?

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 02:08:30 +0000

Thanks for getting back to me. The website you point to used to sell the WalkyDog, but the owner recently decided to stop selling the WalkyDog and create a knockoff product. I just want to make sure your readers know that there is a difference to help avoid confusion.

By: Whitney

Whitney — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:15:17 +0000

You’re right, Scott, it actually IS a WalkyDog leash in the video. We purchased that several years ago, and it appears that they’ve since changed their name, but the websites I linked to are where I originally purchased the product from.

By: Scott

Scott — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 16:41:16 +0000

This is an excellent article Whitney – thanks for writing! I did notice that the leash in the demonstration video is actually a WalkyDog leash – not the K9 bike jogger. The video by the way is very well made. Although there has been confusion out there, the WalkyDog and K9 jogger are two different products. I’ll have to try out some of those boots. Looks like Magnolia has no problem with them. If you have any questions, please contact me. Looking forward to more videos of Magnolia and her WalkyDog. Take care